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DNS Records — Learn, Validate & Fix

Pick a record type to learn what it does, how to write it, and what commonly goes wrong. Use the validator and splitter below to check or fix values before pasting them into your DNS provider.

A

A — IPv4 address

What it does

Maps a hostname to an IPv4 address. The most fundamental record: without it, browsers can't find your server.

When to use

Point a domain or subdomain at a server's IPv4 address. Required for apex domains (example.com) where CNAMEs aren't allowed.

Format

Hostname  →  IPv4 (four 0–255 octets, dotted)

Examples

@        A   192.0.2.10
www      A   192.0.2.10

Common gotchas

  • TTL too low (<60s) hammers your DNS bill; too high (>1d) makes failover slow.
  • Multiple A records = round-robin load balancing, NOT health-checked failover.
  • You cannot put a CNAME and an A record on the same name.

How to troubleshoot

  • If site is unreachable: dig +short example.com — empty means no A record.
  • If wrong IP serves: check for stale local /etc/hosts or browser DNS cache.
  • If apex has no A: many providers offer ALIAS/ANAME as a workaround for hosting on Netlify/Vercel.

Record validator

Paste a record value, pick its type, and we'll tell you what's right, what's wrong, and how to fix it.

Long TXT / DKIM splitter

DNS TXT strings are capped at 255 characters. Long values (DKIM keys, SPF, verification tokens) must be split into multiple quoted strings on the same record. Paste your value to get a copy-paste–ready version.

0 chars total → 0 segments